This blog, Criminal HIV Transmission, a collection of published news stories, opinion, and resources about so-called 'HIV crimes', has now been incorporated into the new HIV Justice Network website, and will not be updated as of November 15th 2012.
For more information about the HIV Justice Network, please visit http://www.hivjustice.net

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Two disturbing case reports this week - one from Uganda and one from Australia - highlight the dangers that HIV-positive people face when they disclose (or when others disclose) their HIV status.

In Uganda, a man allegedly hacked his wife of 10 years to death with a machete after he found out he was HIV-positive and blamed his infection on his wife. Report from The Daily Monitor below.

And in Australia, a man stabbed and killed his mother's boyfriend after hearing allegations that he was HIV-positive, even though it's not clear that he actually was. Report from The Australian below.

UPDATE November 24th 2008: A jury has found the Australian man guilty of manslaughter and he was today sentenced to a minimum of five years in jail, according to a report from The Sydney Morning Herald.The Australian reports that "the jury found him not guilty of the more serious charge of murder..."

Police in Rukungiri have arrested a man who allegedly killed his wife of 10 years by hacking her with a machete after he learnt he was infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids. The police identified the suspect as Mr Julius Tumwesigye, 30, and said he blamed his infection on his wife.

According to the officer-in-charge of crime in the area, Mr Jackson Mugisha, the suspect stabbed his wife, Glorius Kyarikunda, 25, at 10am on Tuesday in Kikarara Trading Centre in Bwambara Sub-county, Rukungiri District. The couple had two children aged six and four.

Residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Daily Monitor that Kyarikunda had fled to her parent’s home on Sunday after a fight with her husband. The attack is reported to have occurred two days later when Kyarikunda returned with the children to collect her property and found an enraged Tumwesigye.

It was at that point that Mr Tumwesigye allegedly pounced, hacking her to pieces. She died moments later. Mr Tumwesigye, who was by now drenched in his wife’s blood, attempted to run but neighbours, who had been drawn to the homestead by Ms Kyarikunda’s screams, arrested him.

It was the timely intervention of the Police that saved him from the mob that was baying for his blood.

A blood-stained machete was recovered from the scene of the crime. A post-mortem report showed that the deceased died from deep cuts inflicted by sharp object.

Mr Mugisha told Daily Monitor, that such murders seldom happen in Rukungiri. “It is the only murder of the kind that I can recall in a long time,” he said, in a telephone interview. However, murders generally have been on the increase in western Uganda. Several weeks ago, a mentally ill man in Bushenyi hacked his family of six to death before killing himself.

A well known HIV, gender and human rights activist, Dr Lydia Mungherera, who lives openly with HIV, yesterday condemned the attack and called for swift justice. “It is horrific that a woman is hacked to death on being blamed to have infected a man with HIV,” Dr Mungherera said.

“No one knows who infected who in this case. It has become a common practice for women to be blamed in society as the cause of the pandemic. It is very bad to hack a person you have been living together with for long.” Tumwesigye had, by yesterday, not yet been charged.

Dr Eugene Kinyanda, a consultant psychiatrist with the Medical Research Council said Mr Tumwesigye’s act could be due to lack of counselling services in the area.

He said: “Such psychosocial problems that are not attended to eventually result into brutal murders because of delusion. But sometimes it may be due to mental illness or frustration after realising one has contracted HIV.”

According to Mr Moses Muramuzi, a neighbour to Mr Tumwesigye, the suspect had become withdrawn in recent days after discovering that he was HIV positive. “He vowed to deal with his wife whom he accused of bringing it to him,” Mr Muramuzi said. “He claimed he had no outside relationship.”

About a million people in Uganda are living with HIV but activists warn of increasing attacks, especially within homes. At a recent workshop held in Soroti, the Regional Manager of the charity ActionAid Uganda, Ms Ann Akwango, said violence against women living with HIV and Aids is increasing and revealed that statistics from Pallisa District had indicated 100 out of 465 HIV-positive women questioned during a survey earlier this year, had experienced some form of violence after revealing their status to their husbands.

It is feared that this type of violence will scare partners from revealing their status, drive the epidemic underground and lead to increasing infection and deaths from people afraid to seek professional care and support.

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About this blog

This blog is now incorporated into new HIV Justice Network website which is intended to be a global information and advocacy hub for individuals and organisations working to end the inappropriate use of the criminal law to regulate and punish people living with HIV. There you will find the latest news and cases, searchable by date, country, and case type, plus all kinds of advocacy resources (including video). The information on the website is also classified by 25 topics, under six headings: Advocacy; Alternatives; Impact; Law Enforcement; Laws and Policies; and Science.

The new HIV Justice Network website incorporates all the posts from my blog, Criminal HIV Transmission, which I began in 2007. Little did I know at the time that it would become an important global resource, filling a much-needed gap by capturing what is happening in real time. It was only when I attended AIDS 2008 in Mexico City, and discovered how many people knew of me and my work, that I realised how useful a resource it had become for advocates, researchers, lawyers and others from all over the world.

Knowing that the blog served as an international information and advocacy hub placed enormous pressure on my time and personal resources. Until the beginning of 2012, the blog and its associated advocacy work received no funding – save the few wonderful individuals who donated via Paypal and a small grant from IPPF (thank you!). So I’m very grateful to The Monument Trust for its generous support which has allowed me to sustain, develop and expand the blog into the HIV Justice Network. I’d also like to thank Kieran McCann and Thomas Paterson from NAM, who designed and developed the site, as well as NAM’s Executive Director, Caspar Thompson, for his support and guidance.

HIV and the Criminal Law

This international resource, HIV and the Criminal Law, which I wrote and edited for NAM, is available as an A5 book and at www.aidsmap.com/law. To order your copy visit www.aidsmap.com/law, or contact NAM at +44 (0)20 7840 0050, email: info@nam.org.uk If you are based in a low or lower middle income country, as defined by the World Bank, and would like a free copy of this book please contact NAM.

Why Criminalisation Matters

Click on the image above to listen to Sean Strub, Catherine Hanssens, Vanessa Johnson and I discuss why HIV criminalisation in the US is a major issue for public health and human rights. The panel took place in February 2011 as part of the eQuality Thinking virtual convention.

Funders Concerned About AIDS

I delivered the keynote address, 'Combating HIV Criminalization at Home & Abroad', to the annual gathering of US-based HIV funders in Washington DC in December 2010. Video of my presentation is now available. Visit the FCAA website to watch it online.

Criminalisation of HIV Exposure and Transmission: Global Extent, Impact and The Way Forward

This meeting by and for advocates against the criminalisation of HIV nondisclosure, exposure and non-intentional transmission was held on July 18th 2010 prior to AIDS2010 in Vienna and co-organised by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Global Network of People Living with HIV and NAM.

This poster presented to the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna in July 2010, highlights how the US criminal justice system routinely breaches international human rights standards [click on the image to download an interactive pdf file]